My Genealogy Hound

JOHN LAFABRE, Georgetown, Attorney at Law, and ex-Clerk of the Courts of Brown County, was born in Franklin Township September 9, 1830. His father was John Lafabre, who was born in Lower Oxford, 56 miles from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1794. He was a carpenter by trade; and in 1819 located in Ohio. Soon after, he purchased a farm in Franklin Township, this county, between Russellville and Arnheim, when he was engaged in agricultural pursuits till the date of his death — 1873. Mr. Lafabre’s mother was Elizabeth Thompson, born on the top of South Mountain, Pennsylvania, and a daughter of Alexander Thompson, a native of Scotland. Mrs. Lafabre is still living, and at present resides at Russellville. Ten children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Lafabre, only two of whom survive—our subject and sister Belle, who resides with her mother at Russellville. The subject of this notice received his early literary education at Wittenberg College, Springfield, Ohio, where he remained one year, and subsequently attended school at College Hill, Hamilton Co., Ohio, where he remained two and a half years. He studied law at Dayton for fifteen months, from the fall of 1853, and then attended a course of lectures at the Cincinnati Law School. He was engaged in the milling business at Ripley for six or seven years, and subsequently “farmed it” for five or six years. In 1875, he was nominated for Clerk of Courts of Brown County, on the Democratic ticket, and was duly elected. In the fall of 1878, he was re-elected, his second term expiring February 9, 1882. Since that time, Mr. Lafabre has been engaged in the practice of his profession. Mr. Lafabre has always been a Democrat in politics, and in 1856-57, was editor and publisher of the Brown County Democrat. Mr. Lafabre is a member of the Masonic and Odd Fellow fraternities, at Georgetown, being Master of the former body. He was united in marriage, in 1858, to Sallie A., daughter of George D. Evans, of Georgetown. Three children have been born to them, one of whom survives — Elizabeth, wife of C. H. McKibben. Mr. Lafabre’s father never knew a sick day from three years of age, till the time of his death, a period of seventy-seven years. In 1812, he assisted in building, at Pittsburgh, the first steamboat to run on the Ohio River. Mrs. Lafabre is in her eighty-fifth year, and still enjoys good health. Charles H. McKibben, who married Mr. Lafabre’s daughter Elizabeth, was born in Lewis Township, December 5, 1853. He is a son of Henry McKibben (deceased), who was an early Clerk of the Courts of Brown County. His mother was Mary J. Young, a sister of W. W. Young. Mr. McKibben was reared and educated in Georgetown, and for twelve years assisted his father in the dry goods business. In 1874, he secured a position in the wholesale dress goods department of John Shillits’s mammoth store at Cincinnati, where he remained two years. He then returned to Georgetown, and in 1876 engaged in the grocery business. The date of his marriage was February 2, 1881.